Association Fallacy

All men with gold ties are exactly like this guy!

After Trump and Roof, I've noticed a disturbing logical fallacy being perpetrated by the white nationalist followers of Donald Trump and Fox News.

Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, a criminal, murdered a woman in cold blood in San Francisco.   Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez is an illegal alien, in the United States illegally.  Fox News has been pressing this story very hard because, since Lopez-Sanchez is an illegal alien, Trump must be right.  

The logical fallacy is called Association Fallacy.  Its where you say all members of a group are alike to one example because of some characteristic.

Bob has black hair.  Bob is a plumber.  Therefore, all men with black hair are plumbers.

My dog has four legs.  My cat has four legs.  Therefore my dog is a cat.

Lopez-Sanchez is a murderer.  Lopez-Sanchez is a Latino.  Therefore Trump is right and all "mexicans" are evil.  

Bernie Madoff is a Jew.  Bernie Madoff committed a financial crime.  Therefore the Nazis were right and all Jews are money grubbing swindlers.

See where we're going with this?

The scary thing is that white nationalists and Fox News are trying to use this story and this fallacy to further drum up anti-Latino feeling in the United States.  This one crime, and it is a heinous crime, is not proof that all Latinos are drug users and rapists.  However, it seems that a great section of the far right is trying to get people to come to that very incorrect conclusion.